Reverse flow offset build (lowes smoker ripoff)

[NRA4Life]

3) small firebox - i couldnt see being able to load it up and go to sleep for a long cook.

That is a really nice build you have there, and it should serve you well. I built my stickburner as well and love the food that I can produce with it. One thing you'll realize is that to maintain your ideal cooking temperature with an efficient fire burning with "sweet blue smoke", you can't load up the firebox and go to sleep for a long cook. You'll learn your pit and what it likes, but I feed mine 4 small pieces of wood every 45 minutes - hour. A stickburner requires lots of attention and there isn't a lot of sleep going on.

 

[NRA4Life]

My only question is whether you will get enough airflow from the firebox to the cook chamber.

I concur with this assessment, and question whether you'll get enough draft with the 4" exhaust. I'd fire it up as has been recommended, but keep the fire at the size and efficiency needed to maintain 250 deg (or whatever you intend your target temp to be), and see if you can get it to burn clean with enough draft. In other words don't just build a fire in the fire box to see if it will burn, build the size fire you will normally always have in the box while cooking.

 

[Hawg Father of Seoul]

Awesome!!

 

[Smokin' Aces]

looks great i want one

 

[bbq lover]

really nice work sweet

 

[Old Smoke]

Nice!!!! :thumb:

 

[Diamond State Smoker]

man that thing is purty

 

[imperfectutopia]

Hey guys, thanks for all the tips! Over the weekend we were so close, we went on and completed it. Here are some photos. Most questions people seemed to have are about flow and honestly, i dont have enough experience to answer them with any direct easy answer. So i burned it all weekend and heres what it did. Heat was very even across both ends of the cooking chamber, got up to 225 - 250 in about 30-40 min and I was able to control it using natural draft and the top damper... went through a lot of fuel, although, i am used to a char griller smoker so i dont know if it was really a lot for this one's size and burn time (which i didnt keep track of.. aah beers). I attached a photo of it drafting. It seems like it drafts strong and the fire burns evenly across the firebox. I am curious about the color of the smoke from the "sweet blue smoke" comment, as i dont really know what that is. I know what it smells like when the logs are just on fire and burning waaayy too hot, and its not that, but i dont know if ive got the sweet stuff or if ive gone too far the other way. How can i tell if the fire is healthy? are there some tests i can do or measures i can compare to? I will say this, just letting it burn and draft like pictured, it does burn everything in the box completely. I dunno, this is my first build and im sure i made some mistakes in design and may modify as time goes by, but right now overall - I think i like it! Yall let me know and thanks for the feedback!

 

[flyingv4me]

Very impressive! :thumb:

 

[colonel00]

Looks great! Send it up here for draft testing. I would be happy to put it through a good year's worth of testing.

 

[colonel00]

Also, below is a good illustration of the difference between blue and white smoke.

 

[bluetang]

A thing of beauty! Totally impressed here!

 

[Jorge]

I don't see any way to secure the doors when the trailer is in tow. Am I missing that?

Looking at the pic with a fire going, it doesn't look like you had a clean burn. I'd start with a small fire in the firebox, lid and intake wide open until you have very little visible smoke. Then open the exhaust, close the lid to the firebox, but leave the intake wide open. If you are getting clean smoke coming out of the exhaust then increase the size of the fire to see if you can maintain that clean burn. If you can't, I'd look at the exhaust size to improve the draw as well as the intake size to make sure the fire is getting enough oxygen to burn cleanly.

 

[imperfectutopia]

So my fire was too big with not enough draft? and no, there is no way other than bungee to hold the lids down. They wont open while in tow, but the top one on the fire box sure does make some racket!

 

[SmokerKing]

very, very nice!

 

[Jorge]

So my fire was too big with not enough draft? and no, there is no way other than bungee to hold the lids down. They wont open while in tow, but the top one on the fire box sure does make some racket!

I can't tell anything about a fire I can't see:becky: Based on the pic, it doesn't look like it burned clean. The process I suggested should help you find out if that's the case, and narrow down the cause.

 

[imperfectutopia]

That is a good test, i planned on firing it up tonight or tomorrow for more trials and ill give that a shot! Thanks! In order to do the test, i have to know what i am looking for, cause to my eye i thought the smoke coming from my photo more resembled the blue than the white from colonel's example. Spliced the photos to try and see and i guess i fall somewhere inbetween, closer to blue? wishful thinking??:becky:

 

[imperfectutopia]

Also noticing, is my smoke too fast? It looks faster compared to both of the example pics.

 

[Jorge]

It could also be my monitor as well.

 

[imperfectutopia]

Me too man, I guess ill just have to play with my new toy some more to find out.. aww shucks.